Game Thread GAME# 61: BLAZERS @ CELTICS - FEBRUARY 27, 2019 - WEDNESDAY, 5:00 PM, ESPN & NBCSNW

I sooooo wish you were at your youngest's game this year when I ref'd her team.
You would've been '''''''thrown out''''''''.

 

Amazing. 5 game win streak. 4 straight on the road. A season high 15 games above 500. (Yes, I heard Calabro reference '15 games above 500', so it's a real thing.)
Times are good.....



The Blazers are 3 games ahead of last year's pace, and 3 game behind the 2014-15 pace.

This team is coming together at the right time. Let's keep this rolling and keep collecting those Ws. I'm greedy.

 

Tonight was one of the best defensive efforts I've seen from this team since Dame took over. Enjoy the win, man. Third quarter was a clinic. Our starters were on a freaking string.

Rewatch that shit

 

Is harkless the key for the Blazers between very good team and good team?
Why is Harkless so bad for stretches than good for stretches. Its weird I know he had the knee thing but, he still spent a lot of time this year looking fairly disinterested.

 

Let's give the bench more minutes in Canada. I don't really care if we lose this game. We just need to win the remaining games after the Toronto game.

 

I think he's a player who needs time on the court to get to basketball speed.
Every time he's missed time when he comes back he might be good for that one game, but he looks like ass for a month or so after it.

Similar to some players who lose focus if they don't touch the ball every now and then.

 

Nurk ... I love this guy defensive efforts tonight. So many blocks.

 

So does that mean we shouldn't enjoy the hot streak, that we always need to be thinking about our title hopes? Or playoffs.

It's not just you, and really, I shouldn't bother, but these sorts of posts always rub me the wrong way. Yeah, we all want to win a title. But ultimately, the NBA, and even this forum, is a form of entertainment for all of us. It's always baffling to me that some watch a big win over a team expected to be at least in the title conversation from the east, and it's just meh, we haven't done shit in the playoffs lately though, so what of it.

It feels like if I came out of a marvel movie thinking it was super entertaining, and I enjoyed my 2 hours watching it, and then someone was like well yeah, but when the fuck was the last time a comic book movie won an oscar? Huh? Yeah. Like shit, I don't know. I enjoyed that though.

I get that we've seen hot streaks before and they didn't lead to playoff success. But they lead to a super entertaining and fun few weeks while we were on the hot streak.

 

My fav part of the game is after Nurk picked up the foul for running Smart over. Lillard went over to Nurk and re-focused him on the task at hand.
Great leadership out of the best player on your team.
Soon as the ball was inbounded Smart tried to 'shoulder check Nurk'. And Nurk stayed focus didn't let the little check effect his effort on the defensive end.

 

Winning is the answer...we should just keep doing that

 

Exactly tonight isnt the night to be a downer. What a sick win against a desperate team

 

Why are we always so good right after the All star game?

 

You might be right, but it's annoying? Maybe that's not the right word... I spend a lot of my time thinking man if they had one forward who was good on both ends of the floor consistently they'd be a legit threat. I spend a lot of time thinking about the Aminu / Harkless thing just doesn't work because neither are consistent offensive threats. Then Harkless puts together stretches where I'm like ok they got what they needed! It's just weird to watch at least for me.

 

And I completely enjoy this winning streak or any other. And it is certainly not about thinking about a title....heck, a win or two in the first round would be quite a departure from the last 2 years let alone winning a series. 'Title' talk is unrealistic and it's certainly not something I would come close to expecting yet. I would just like to see some of the regular season streaks translate into at least some playoff success. Doesn't seem to much to ask. Otherwise, we are just in a purgatorial rut that isn't going anywhere anymore than a merry go round. We can enjoy the ride but it doesn't mean we are going anywhere.

 

Nurk got robbed of some blocks in the box score - I know he had more than two!

 

He is so important when he plays like this. Look at the best teams in the west, they all have an elite player at his position. We need him to defend them.

When Hark is healthy and playing like this we get more 50-5o balls, more rebounds, more steals, and more dunks.
Now he just needs to hit a couple open 3's.

 

I look at Harkless like M&M used to constantly hammer on their broadcast about Webster.
Those two used to always say when Webster hits his first shot he's going to have a good game, but when he misses they believe it's going to be a bad night for Webster.

I don't think Harkless allows himself to be effected like Webster used to on that first 3.
But I do think Harkless is a player who needs to feel involved in the offense to consistently play well.
Well.... Once he's up to basketball speed which takes him about a month. Only thing is I don't think it's 'playing yourself into game shape'. Like NBA vets used to do, I just think after Harkless misses time for injuries or DNPCD the game is too fast for him for a bit.

 

See, I mean, you can say you're not pessimistic but realistic but, IMO, at least, a realist recognizes all of what you're saying, and will readily agree with it. In a thread pertaining to that sort of topic. The pessimist feels the need to mention it, and then respond like this, in the game thread. To each their own. Yeah, we'd all love to see a run in the playoffs as well, to see this carry over. We just don't all feel like we should insert that into any topic we possibly could.

 

Bingo. Call it "focus" or "motor" or whatever - the bottom line is that there are too many nights where he doesn't give close to 100%.

 

Yeah, without context it looks fine.

It’s really not when he’s monopolizing over 1/4 of your cap as well as 1/4 of your offensive possessions on below league average efficiency.

And on top of that he’s a complete negative on the other end.

I think the criticism is pretty justified.